PEOPLE USED TO BLOG LIKE THIS...

Oh, I have not been here, but I can't really say where I've been. Not because I'm being coy or have been on some kind of exciting secret mission, but because I don't know where the time went and now time has passed so anything I was going to tell you seems so long ago. I can't seem to keep up with myself at the moment, or focus on any of the billion different ideas and projects I have racing around in my head and all the things I have to do.

I will try and remember the past week at least:

A make up artist at Selfridges got me in a chair, then half way through applying blusher to my cheeks told me she was doing a Kate Middleton make up look on me and I couldn't escape.

I had a training session for something voluntary I'm going to do, which is simultaneously very exciting and terrifying.

I visited Laetitia and her cardboard doppelganger in the window of Forever 21 in Oxford Street - they were both in fine form, though one was more animated than the other.

I went to Lauren's new place in Primrose Hill and instructed her in the ways of white sage smudging, which were taught to me by the very wise Elizabeth.

I didn't manage to make it to any LFW stuff I was invited to - sorry everyone - and sorry to people who've invited me to things because if you emailed me in the past week, I probably didn't even reply.

I got obsessed with my new fabric shaver. The Miu Miu coat I was going to give to charity because it was bobbly all over = like new again. My fave Sessùn jumper that I only wore round the house for the same reason = de-fuzzed, like new. I can't believe those crappy looking things work!

I kept putting off renewing my passport because I have such anxiety about surrendering the old one. I imagine someone is going to want to whisk me off somewhere amazing during the time I don't have one. Yep, I am a certified wanderluster. That and there are so many arbitrary rules about it that I've had to fill out the form twice already, because I used the wrong type of black pen. Hate rules.

I lined up next week's Bloggers + Cats interview.

I didn't take any photos with my camera, but lots with my iphone, mostly of food. When it gets quiet here, I'm still always posting stuff on Instagram (@lolaisbeauty) and Twitter.

I got obsessed with having Jamaican chicken soup as much as possible as a cold remedy. The lady in the takeaway refers to me as little girl chile, which makes me happy.

I painted my nails the most high maintenance shade of matte navy, which lasts for about two hours before needing to be repaired. Maybe that's why I can't remember anything else much - it's the fumes.

I failed in buying any even slightly decent non-overpriced/tacky flowers around Valentine's day, so I waited until Friday before buying some lovely veronica stems.

I lost my cashmere hat, immediately bought another one because it was -6 degrees c, then found the old one and by the time the new cashmere one arrived from COS it wasn't cold anymore.

I went to my local farmers' market and saw a very English man wearing an Aztec poncho, a lot of couples wearing sunglasses, a stall that only sold different varieties of potato (I like that one,) my friend bought one oyster and ate it 'to go', I bought a white beetroot and some kale and we saw a ferret on a lead being taken for a walk.

I wrote list upon list and added items to rollover lists that I'd been unable to tick off and felt very bad about it.

POLANSKI, PAINTINGS, PYJAMAS...

Carnage
I had been meaning to get to a screening of Carnage for ages, but for some reason I kept failing to make it. Perhaps I was subconsciously put off by the description of it as tense and fraught. Also knowing it was a stage adaptation (I'm strangely allergic to theatre) I assumed that meant it was one of those actor-y films that big-time actors (in this case Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz, Jodie Foster and John C. Reilly) do to really "inhabit" their characters and get all luvvie about their "craft." (I'm looking at you, Winslet.) But because it's a Roman Polanski film I finally went along last week. When you're sitting in a screening room full of film critics and everyone is cracking up laughing for all the right reasons you know you're onto a winner. The premise is that two sets of bourgeois liberal Brooklyn parents meet to politely discuss a playground fight between their two young sons in which one of them has been injured. I would imagine it stays very faithful to the play - the action doesn't stray from the four in the apartment, adding to the claustrophobia. Within the first half hour the mask of civil cordiality starts to break down, finally irrevocably. But it's all handled so deftly that the slightest detail can make you wince or burst out laughing. {Carnage is released in the UK on 3 February.}

The Last Nude
When I was poorly a while ago, my very kind friend Lauren (who thankfully will be visiting London soon, which is dull without her) sent me a care package containing all kinds of lovely things. One of those things was The Last Nude by Ellis Avery, an imagined account of the love affair between Tamara de Lempicka and Rafaela, her muse in 1920s Paris. This is the book that dragged me out of my reading drought - a very evocative, gripping read. As luck would have it, my other friend Lauren (who thankfully is MOVING from Paris to London this week) has written a fine review of it here.

Poplin PJs at Avenue 32
I wear mens' style pyjamas - it's one of my things. I say mens' style, not mens' because I don't like that gap they have, you know. For a long time I'd wondered about those silk Olatz pyjamas, that really chic people seem to own and rave about. But those really chic people are clearly also really rich because these PJs cost an arm and a leg (or a Schnabel) and are dry clean only. I don't currently have a maid so I was thinking of going for cotton instead. Olatz pyjamas do come in cotton but they're still priced for the 1% crowd. What I wanted was contrast piping pyjamas  - like Coco Chanel wore. These cotton J. Crew PJs might work now that my favourite stripy flannel Toast ones are falling apart, though I still have my APC Madras cotton polka dot PJs er, and some stripy Princesse TamTam ones. I like pyjamas a lot, ok? I thought you could get the J. Crew ones monogrammed, but maybe I made that up because I can't see that option now. Finally I found Poplin Pyjamas which might just be the answer. The proportion looks a little off but that might be a case of real person proportion photographed on a lanky model. The best thing is it's a London label and you can buy them from Avenue 32, also UK based, making things less complicated for me with shipping than J.Crew. I might go for the Shrimpton.

DISCOVERIES...

*Gin & tonic is so much better with a slice of lime, rather than lemon. How did I not ever realise this before?

*Even though I am broke as a joke and Duckie is in the garage for £1000s worth of repairs, my wardrobe is the wardrobe that keeps on giving. I haven't been shopping for ever, but over the past couple of years I'd bought things like maxi skirts, bright colours and wide brimmed raffia hats, but felt too self conscious to wear them. And I bought spring/summer things at the APC sample sale last November. Now, out they come, into the spring light.

*Blogger has been eating my posts - perhaps for months! I vaguely thought it was odd that the archive count never said I had more than 800 something posts and now I know why! Blogger is eating them somewhere in the middle, so I can't work out which ones have disappeared. So when I post this, another one will probably disappear! I have sent an SOS out into the ether of Blogger Help - not really expecting a response, not really sure what to do. Has this happened to anyone else?

*I bought a sprig of white lilac at one of the florists employed by the royal family last Thursday, the day before the wedding. Now I know they used white lilac in the wedding flowers and I think my sprig might have been a leftover.

*My life has taken on something of a Cinderella quality recently: three parts scrubbing vegetables in the basement to one part magical fairydust. Annoyingly I can't really write about it here and I don't want to go all cryptic on you like I just did. When I discover how to reverse the formula and rescue myself (without a Prince Charming in sight) it will probably be quite obvious!

WEEKEND SCRAPS: THINGS I LIKE...

Blogs/tumblrs about women wearing mens/androgynous clothing. I approve.

Tomboy Style
Wearing the Pants
And I'm forgetting one I really like.

Two pieces of knitwear that need to be mine:

Colenimo Amelia jumper (AW11/12)

Hetterson Crenelle + patches striped jumper.

THINGS THAT ARE GOOD...

*My hot pink velvet Venetian Furlane slippers - bought in Venice last autumn. Traditionally worn by Friulian people, then adopted by gondoliers; the soles are made from bicycle tyres and you can get them with lining made from recycled pinstriped shirting. I think my friend D used to have these when I lived with him, because wearing them gives me an inexplicable desire to drink Lapsang Souchong and smoke a pipe.

*Trois Couleurs magazine. I believe this is the free magazine of MK2 cinemas in France and it's not bad at all. This issue is all Sofia Coppola, all the way through. I wish more magazines would commit fully to a single subject - there's not a word or picture in there that's not Sofia related. I asked Nancy if she'd seen it on her Francophone travels and like a star, she tracked it down and sent it to me!

In the magazine there's a section visually comparing scenes from Sofia's other films and another comparing films that influenced Somewhere with scenes from it (above). The picture on the left is of a scene in Chantal Akerman's film Jeanne Dielman...where the camera is fixed for long periods, while the viewer watches the protagonist performing routine daily tasks in real time - something utilised all the way through Somewhere. On the right is the scene where Cleo makes Eggs Benedict at the Chateau Marmont in Somewhere.

*Thursday (that's tomorrow) is always Bloggers + Cats day, in case you hadn't noticed. I'm so happy to discover that you're all just as huge cat freaks as me...We've got some really good ones lined up!

STUFF I LIKE AT THE MOMENT...

*OK Scott Sternberg from Band of Outsiders, I feel like such an underachiever. Not only are you really good at making clothes, but you've also got an amusing and well written blog about your obsession with cookies. 

*Films for a fiver on Tuesdays at the BFI. Do you have any idea how much I love BFI Southbank?  Yesterday I saw Truffaut's Silken Skin (La Peau Douce) and last week, Jules et Jim (run now finished) as part of the Truffaut retrospective. There's something about watching a packed to the rafters screening of these films made fifty years ago that makes me feel a twinge of hope for the world. I also think I might want to be a projectionist.

Pretty good excuse to post photos of Jeanne Moreau and Francoise Dorleac, eh?

*Going to a local poetry night, the second Monday of each month. I've been going for ages. A mix of open mike, regulars, established poets, upcoming musicians and the inimitable Jazzman John.


*I must have watched the trailer for this film about Bill Cunningham twenty times in the past month. I'm waiting to hear if and when it'll be screened in London and will let you know.


*Lastly, thank you for the positive response and all your tweets and mentions about the Bloggers + Cats feature. It will be back tomorrow with a double helping of gorgeous felines who I'm sure you'll recognise...

CHRISTMAS WISHLIST: LOUNGING AROUND EDITION...

{Muuto E27 pendant lamp, The White Company velvet bathrobe, Brvtvs double chain ring, Marni bra, Trasparenze Gennifer merino hold ups, F.Scott Fitzgerald beautiful cover hardbacks.}

LIFE IS BIUTIFUL...

Before I bombard you with about a week's worth of Paris related posts, here are some bits and bobs of interest from before I went:

Book: Keith Richards: Life. I would never have picked this book up if I hadn't happened to read an excerpt from it in the Times and been surprised at how engaging it was. It's so riveting that I can't put the bloody thing down now - I even took it to Paris, though its size and weight took up about half of my luggage. Although it has been written "with" a writer (James Fox), the unmistakable voice of Keef slurs wittily through the pages: taking us from his childhood in Dartford, his love for the blues, through to the bust at Redlands, time spent in the South of France and Morocco - and all the details in between, which yes, it's surprising he remembers really! In the part I'm reading at the moment, it's all about Anita Pallenberg; his respect for her as a person really comes through. That's about where I've got to so far. The other thing is that he devotes pages and pages to describing the way he plays music and how other people play, in great detail. It's interesting enough for me who never got past grade one clarinet and playing Chopsticks on the piano, but I imagine for a musician it would be fascinating to be told how Keef gets certain sounds out of his guitar, or how the Stones construct songs. It's also very amusing in places - I would recommend it to anyone. Previously if I ever saw Keith Richards out and about I might do a vague double take and go on about my business, but after reading this I might have to shake the man's hand. Here are a few pics of Anita, back in the day. Funny how responsible she was for the Stones look in the '60s and '70s (and hi Kate Moss, you're so original), but the word stylist was never bandied around then.

Film: Biutiful.

SCRAPS...

Inspirational whatnot that's been on my desktop and somehow goes together.

{I can't find the credits, just the sources. Tell me if you know! First image via Convoy(?), second via JJJJound, third via either Lolita or Julia I think (can't find it now), fourth via designsponge. }

SCRAPS...

*I've got a couple of new posts up on ONLY.com: one about lovely Ingrid Holm of The Showmanship and her insanely poetic skills, and one about Elisa Sednaoui and Delfina Delettrez wearing swishy Louis Vuitton AW10 on Somewhere's red carpet. {You might want to turn your speakers down before clicking on the Only site.}

*Justine Picardie has a piece here that tells a little of her journey with Coco Chanel during the research stage of her book. I'm right in the middle of reading it and it's brilliant. Every page brings new details and insight into Chanel as a person. (And I'm not just saying that because Justine gave me tea and macarons.)

*Last weekend was Open House day in London and I finally got to see the Master Shipwright's House in Deptford. It's a private house but is often used as a location. Despite getting to work in some amazing locations when I was a stylist, this wasn't one of them and I was always intrigued. The house is surrounded by a very high wall and is only visible from the river, so I only knew what I'd heard about it. As the house is now up for sale (for 5 million quid) the owners opened it to the public and we had a good old nose round and ended up sunning ourselves in the garden surrounded by apple and pear trees, sunflowers, tomato plants and chickens. Everyone I know who went there couldn't stop thinking about it for days. There are loads of pictures of it on my flickr, though we weren't allowed to take pictures inside.

I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW...

Who these people are that keep buying the things I'm obsessed with at Erie Basin?

Why no one (including the Internet*) can provide me with a definitive answer to what size a womens shoe size 5 (38) would be in mens/boys so I can buy some mens brogue Dealer boots?

LOST SATURDAY...

Appalling hangover, first homegrown courgette, watching of To Catch a Thief DVD foiled by mistakenly setting language to "Benelux countries" and being too befuddled to reset it, favourite PJs ripped in sleep, spaghetti with lambs lettuce, olive oil, sea salt, pepper and parmesan, naps, tax bill paid, fast falling delphinium petals...

7...

If Jane and Ephemerette passed the versatile blogger award on to me - merci beaucoup! So now I have to reveal seven things about myself and pass the award onto some of my favourite blogs...

Seven things I like. I cheated a bit, but surely the things you like reveal something about you?

1. The number 7.

2. Being an autodidact. I only learned this word the other day - hey, sometimes things take a bit longer when you're self taught. Phew! I feel so much more legit now that I have a fancy concise word to justify describe the way I learn.

3. This home.

4. American Apparel underwear. No, seriously I do! It doesn't look anywhere near as sleazy if you don't pull those slutty poses like they do on the website, which I'm not linking to. It's very well cut as well. Though I read somewhere that AA is "on the brink of total collapse" so I'm stocking up on more micro mesh triangle bras and low slung briefs. (Sooo not linking - far too many nipples.) I'm trying to forget that I also read Dov Charney tries all the underwear (just the underwear samples we hope) on himself.

5. I like the idea of dyeing the ends of my hair faded pink. (Like 10% of that.) I've been ruminating on this for a few months, though as yet I haven't reached for the Manic Panic. But I have dark hair, so to get your hair pink, you have to bleach it first. But if it was just the ends, you could have it cut out when you got bored of it...(this is how my ruminating process goes.)

6. The high waisted black silky shorts I bought at Warehouse for £13 in the sale.

7. Illesteva's lookbook models.

I'm giving the award to:

Toujours Toi
So Much To Tell You
Scout Holiday
Ringo, Have a Banana
Kempt
Jeana Sohn


{photo: Mike Vorrasi}

LINKAGE...

* I've always loved Elisa Nalin's styling, so it was nice to see inside her wardrobe, having previously seen inside her home. (And her new haircut!)

* TinEye Reverse Image Search. No more excuses for not crediting photographers blogworld!

* AnOther Loves - I wish I had thought of designing my blog like this.

* Lost Cat Poster.

YOU DON'T KNOW HOW HAPPY THIS MAKES ME...

*I feel the need to listen to Phoenix's Love Like a Sunset Parts I & II at least twelve times a day, so when I heard that Sofia Coppola was going to direct a short film to it (it's 10 minutes 40 seconds long) I was practically hopping up and down with excitement. You can't help listening without mentally directing one anyway - so the thought of Sofia making one, though hardly surprising, was welcome news. Now it emerges that Phoenix has in fact used it heavily for the soundtrack of Sofia's upcoming film, Somewhere, which I was already hopping up and down excited about. More about it here. I am doing a little jig.

*What The Fuck Should I Make For Dinner? I clearly respond well to aggression, because I really feel like trying the lamb with carrots and pureed chickpeas, having not cooked a proper meal in months. {via Vain & Vapid}.

*Paperless Post is like Smythson stationery for your computer.

*The brand spankin' new (not quite fully opened) East London Line. I can get to Shoreditch and Dalston in minutes! My flat just doubled in value! Orange doors!

SO EASILY SWAYED...

All the things the internet has made my brain think I want during the past month or so:

Hair like Anouck's in the Aubin & Wills catalogue:

An Amanda Wachob tattoo - I mean, I'm in the market for a new tattoo, but those are insane, in the best way.

Japan! I must cross the threshold of always saying next year, next year. Everyone's tempting me with cherry blossoms and prison themed restaurants.

Estelle & Thild Ecorganic skin cream. (It's both ecological and organic you see.) And er, it has really nice packaging and contains things one would think are really nourishing and good for knackered old bags like me, who eat entire chocolate Easter bunnies in one day instead of meals. I want the eye balm but there's no picture of it on their website. These are pretty though.

SCRAPS...

*The Impossible Project starts selling Polaroid film again today - and a medium is saved.

*My cousin in Barcelona played me her friend Samantha de Siena's album and I like it. She sounds a bit like PJ Harvey channeling Amelie Poulain - no, the other way around.

*With minutes to spare before taking the train from Passeig de Gracia, I ducked into Oysho and was so overcome by the cute Liberty prints and ticking stripes in thin cotton underwear and homewear that I couldn't choose anything. And of course they have shops in Montenegro, Kuwait and a variety of other random locations but not in the UK. (I think I may have been to their shop in Venice with Anna once?)

Guess what? Their spring collection is inspired by David Hamilton's Demoiselles. If I had a penny for every collection inspired by those photos I could buy one.

1,2,3,...

1.
Going to a restaurant on Valentine's day is rather like driving on the motorway on Christmas day. Full of people who don't do it very often, aren't quite sure how to and aren't really doing it because they want to. Ha. I also went to see Breakfast at Tiffany's yesterday, which my local cinema had kindly screened (there are advantages to the day after all) and it was lovely to see it on the big screen. I noticed so many details I usually miss, such as the pink of Audrey's toenail varnish, or the Japanese paper screens in her bathroom.

My local wine shop celebrated by putting up these record covers and by hanging up a bandage covered heart with cheesy romance paperbacks hanging off it speared with butcher's hooks. I like their style.

2.
I know I've been rather absent from here lately - the usual February lack of oomph I suppose. Having a blog is quite useful in that way - you can look back over the years and note that February is often the sparsest month. And I haven't even told you about Paris yet.

3.
I don't quite know what to say about Alexander McQueen. Everyone seems to have said something, somewhere, though the news media doesn't seem to have thrown much light on anything. I used to help backstage at his shows for the first few years when he started out, dressing models and stuff. It was always a mixture of intense energy, stress, excitement, fear, some kind of backstage catastrophe involving fire or snow - and then the pure wonder of the audience at the spectacle of it all, when it made them feel something. The atmosphere was definitely not for the faint hearted, but now more than ever I'm glad I experienced that up close. All I can think now is of the people who worked closely with him, who were loyal for years and how they must feel; if those who knew him slightly or not at all, feel such loss.

SCRAPS...

*Ah, Vodianova. As you know, I generally don't concern myself much with supermodels, but since watching this video on CNN a while ago, Natalia Vodianova is possibly the only one I might concern myself with wondering what it's like to be her. From the whole perspective of going from being a poverty stricken child, selling fruit on the street in Russia to where she is now. (And now I also need to experience a Siberian herb sauna.)

*I was amused to see a woman wearing my Alaia boots today. (Obviously they weren't my actual boots, or I would have been more alarmed.) I shoe stalked her for a while, to make sure they weren't just similar, but honestly I could recognise them instantly from across the street by the familiarly awkward gait they gave her. And she was wearing them in the afternoon.

*I'm still mulling over your questions for D.V. Have patience...

{photos: Karen Collins}

12 DAYS OF LOLA...

On the first day of Lola my true love sent to me
A Poire Williams liqueur filled chocolate pear,

On the second day of Lola my true love sent to me
A pair of Lee Hale rose thorn earrings,
On the third day of Lola my true love sent to me
A Russian hat, an ice scraper and one of those Ipod plug in things for the car,

On the fourth day of Lola my true love sent to me
More than four hours of sleep,

On the fifth day of Lola my true love sent to me
Five pouches of Dreamies cat treats andehfasuf,lm' - wait, hang on my keyboard's been hijacked,

On the sixth day of Lola my true love sent to me
The Ann Demeulemeester boots I want half price in the sale and lalala, five other things,

On the seventh day of Lola my true love sent to me
A New Year's Eve that doesn't suck in any way,

On the eighth day of Lola my true love sent to me
Eight Bloody Marys for my hangover,

On the ninth day of Lola my true love sent to me
Nine handsome suitors,

On the tenth day of Lola my true love sent to me
This Macha ten strand ring,

On the eleventh day of Lola my true love sent to me
Eleven places to travel in 2010,

On the twelfth day of Lola my true love sent to me
Twelve reasons why this was a badly thought out and poorly executed idea and I really can't think of anything else, except to say thank you dear readers - for reading, for commenting and for coasting along with us in our corner of the Internet.

Merry Christmas x x